A necessity at Sprint's leadership summit: Black-rimmed glasses

Paul Marcarelli not only has helped amp up the Switch to Sprint campaign, but he has given Sprint Corp. a signature, hip look to incorporate into its marketing: black-rimmed glasses.

Those black-rimmed glasses were spotted at Sprint's leadership summit this week at Duke University when Marcarelli, better known as the "Can you hear me now guy?," surprised attendees by showing up. Black-rimmed glasses were scattered among the employees to wear. (Check out the tweet below to see Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure sporting the glasses.) But Sprint employees aren't just wearing them at the summit. The wireless company has distributed them to employees nationwide.

Sprint recruited Marcarelli, who used to do commercials for Verizon Communications Inc., to promote Sprint's network reliability. An ad with him in it first aired during Game 2 of the National Basketball Association finals.

The leadership summit, dubbed Sprint Now by Claure, brought together a couple hundred of Sprint's top-tier leadership team to align them around Sprint's strategy, paint a road map of where the Overland Park-based company is headed, be more effective leaders, share progress and celebrate success, Sprint representative Doug Michelman said.

It was held at Duke University because the academic institution in North Carolina not only has one of the highest-ranked basketball teams, it also has one of the top corporate education programs. Leaders from the university helped Sprint shape its agenda and held a teamwork session.

Sprint employees also heard from former Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally, went on team runs and spent time bonding over live music and dancing.

This is the second year Sprint has had a leadership summit under Claure's leadership.